This Week In Your Plastic Crack, Action Figures and Toy Collection 26 26

[fantastic_four]

On 12/15/2021 at 9:24 AM, B2D327 said:

Question for my fellow plastic crackheads (see what I did there )

I really dig the 7” format of the McFarlane action figures and wanted to know if there’s a Marvel characters equivalent in height. I’ve had 6” and 10” figures but I want to keep any other additions in a uniform size (because I have ocd and any difference in height is not gonna let me have a level playing field)

Any Suggestions?

Diamond Marvel Select figures are also in a 7" scale.  Hasbro has the master Marvel action figure license but primarily makes figures in a 6" (1:12) scale, so Diamond sub-leases their licensing through Hasbro for figures in the 7" (1:10) scale.  The problem is that Select figures come out at about a tenth the rate of Hasbro's Marvel Legends so the character selection is comparatively shallow.

My primary collecting is in the 6" scale for Marvel, although I do buy a few Select figures when it's a character that's typically large anyway so having them be a little bit larger isn't an issue.  The Select figures I mix in with Legends include Destroyer, Titanium Man, the Brood, and Juggernaut.

I buy a few major DC figures in the 6" scale from Medicom Mafex, but they're more expensive imports from Japan at about $80 to $100 per figure.  But the Mafex quality, detail, and articulation is unparalleled for the scale.

I'm impressed by the value McFarlane can pack in at a $20 price point.  Their overall quality lags a bit behind Marvel Legends though.  Articulation is worse, and they don't have face printing tech at all so when they make movie figures they never look much like the actors.  The sculpt and paint on McFarlane figures is often fantastic, but inconsistently so with plenty of oddly-proportioned sculpts out there.  There are many dozens of examples of McFarlane DC figures where they knocked it out of the park though.

Edited December 15, 2021 by fantastic_four

[F For Fake]

On 12/14/2021 at 10:25 PM, followtheleader said:

Thank you for asking.  

It's a pre-cursor to the G1 Transformers line. 

Made by Takara in 1981.  

It's an early combiner called Warudaros.

Basically 3 insects that combine into a large robot.  

This site illustrates it better as I am missing portions:

http://www.robot-japan.com/gallery/item/warudaros-3.html

They actually modernized it recently: 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2021/10/26/meet-warudaros-and-its-waruder-heritage-that-birthed-the-decepticons-in-transformers/?sh=5918cc891091

It is not a very common toy to find in the wild. 

Patrick

Wow, those look so cool. Love the colors. I've definitely never seen one, at least not that I'm aware of. Terrific pickup!

[Cat]

On 12/16/2021 at 12:24 AM, B2D327 said:

Question for my fellow plastic crackheads (see what I did there )

I really dig the 7” format of the McFarlane action figures and wanted to know if there’s a Marvel characters equivalent in height. I’ve had 6” and 10” figures but I want to keep any other additions in a uniform size (because I have ocd and any difference in height is not gonna let me have a level playing field)

Any Suggestions?

You want the DST line of Marvel Select figures. Give them a quick once over in store yourself if you can to confirm they're in that scale, otherwise pass on them, hope they roll around again. 

[Buzzetta]

Jayzuss I am trying to purge... 

I preordered this Vintage Collection figure along with Fennec Shand.  Now Boba has an Accounta-bili-buddy to ride around in the big Slave 1 that I bought last Christmas that I decided to hold on to.   Yes, I know that they charged $13 more for Boba because of special packaging and two Stormtrooper Helmets along with flame effects but... whatever...

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by Buzzetta

[fantastic_four]

Here are my top Marvel Legends for 2021 in order of quality. It's lengthy and I know not everyone in this forum is interested in new releases, so I'll hide it in a spoiler tag to make it easier for people who aren't fans of Marvel Legends to skip it.

Spoiler

I played with all of the figures in my lists for a few days this week to make sure I felt good about how I was ranking them while also double-checking against the 2021 figures at the FigureList web site to make sure I didn't forget any. Doing that led to several figures getting swapped on and off of my list, particularly Ursa Major which I originally didn't even have and eventually decided that was a big mistake.

I always make an objective list that ignores my personal preference as much as possible and focuses on the quality of the figures followed by my subjective list of the figures I personally liked the best that is highly driven by my bias towards characters or other design elements I like. Several of the figures on this list--particularly the Spider-Verse Miles and Peter--I'm not even a fan of and only bought for the BAF parts, but there's no denying the extreme design and engineering quality and innovation that both figures exhibit, so they dominated my list. I started with a list of thirty or so figures and narrowed it down to these twenty, so consider numbers 11 through 20 honorable mentions for the top ten.

1. Haslab Sentinel - Too well designed and too overwhelming for the lack of leg ratcheting to ruin. He's just awesome in every way other than not being able to feel good about leaving him in bent-leg poses without a support system around him for long-term poses, although he's fine for those poses since I've tightened the knees of all three of mine and also added washers to slow the loosening down.
2. Spider-Verse Mile Morales - This wasn't really even close--Miles has the best design and engineering of the year. Insane articulation, terrific aesthetics, dead-on sculpt, and extremely high fun factor. They nailed the cartoon likeness which admittedly is easier to do than nailing a real-life likeness, but it's impressive nonetheless. I wouldn't even own this figure if he didn't come with a BAF piece, but there's no denying his quality.
3. Spider-Verse Peter B. Parker - Just as great as Miles with a more limited articulation range due to the jacket. Just an amazingly-designed figure that feels like import quality at a $20 price tag.
4. Iron Monger - Totally unique sculpt that is unusually well done for the Legends line. The paint is lacking, and there are some engineering issues with keeping the back pistons connected, but just a really fun piece even though he's what I liked the least about the first Iron Man film.
5. Modular Iron Man - The sculpt, the paint, the articulation...ALL insanely well done. Probably the best Legends Iron Man figure ever made.
6. Psycho-Man - Wow, what a goofy-looking character, but wow, what an insanely well-done action figure. Paint and sculpt are amazing, and those leg tubes are something I didn't even think were possible until I saw Hasbro do it on this figure.
7. AoA Colossus - They captured the extreme design of the suit and character from the comics PERFECTLY with this figure. By far the best Colossus figure ever made at this scale. I prefer the classic design, but this one is far better designed and engineered.
8. Ultron - The only thing you could ask for from an Ultron than this figure offers is a bit more articulation, but even so the range of motion they did give us is more than enough and works EXTREMELY well. A perfect Ultron in every way aside from perhaps the paint apps, and I can definitely see why some people still prefer the Marvel Select for its paint job. I thought this guy was destined for my top five, but upon further reflection the VERY minor issues with the paint and articulation held him back a bit.
9. Disney Plus Scarlet Witch - Is this the best face sculpt and paint job Hasbro has ever done to a figure emulating a real-world person? It's the best I know of, and it looks EXACTLY like Elizabeth Olsen. Costume looks great, and it could have easily gone higher up the list if it had matched the final design from the show that had the cape and hood added at some point after Hasbro did their design.
10. Ursa Major - Really nice rendering of the character with superior sculpt, nice paint, and suprisingly-good articulation for a chonky character.
11. MODOK - Only marginally better than the excellent Toy Biz figure, but still, that figure was so good I'm surprised they surpassed it at all. Represents the character perfectly.
12. Stilt-Man - One of my personal favorites of the year, but the figure is a bit bland overall. But those legs...they're SO much fun, and so well-designed in some ways, particularly since you can extend his height indefinitely by buying the army-builder Hand ninjas, a great package marketing design I hope they continue somehow with other figures. The legs don't work great without additional support beyond three extensions, but he's still hella fun either way and would have easily gone high into the top ten if they had figured out a way to secure the legs for more than three extensions to easily work. I bought eight total ninjas with extensions and I'm still considering getting more! Such a fun figure.
13. Zombie Cap - My least-favorite figure of the year, but there's no denying the quality of the paint and sculpt on this guy. I can't even show my 6-year old twins this figure because he scares them, and I don't really like the idea of displaying a rotting corpse, either, but he's definitely a well-done action figure.
14. Kro - I was not looking forward to this figure at all and almost didn't buy him, but his design is so unique I gave it a shot and WOW, he's far more fun to play with than I ever would have guessed. It's those hand tendrils--they're HELLA fun to wrap around another figure. Omega Red's tentacles are fun to wrap around figures, but nowhere NEAR as much as this guy's are. The back tendrils are a really nice touch, and the paint, sculpt, and engineering on this guy are all top-notch.
15. Gamerverse Miles Morales - Best version of Miles ever made by Hasbro aside from the insanely-good Spider-Verse version. Great accessories, and it's so fun that they made the second Gamestop-exclusive version of the figure in invisible form.
16. Ironheart - All-new sculpt with superior articulation for a small female figure. Looks great, moves great, well engineered, and it introduced a cool new smoke effect accessory to latch onto the boots to make it look like the suit is spewing smoke exhaust that I love.
17. AoA Iceman - SUCH a great paint job, and the spikey sculpt flavoring and surprisingly solid engineering design make him the best Iceman figure to date.
18. Red Skull - Really great sculpt and overall aesthetics. Not a flashy figure, but a rock-solid new body mold that I won't mind getting another few dozen times in the upcoming years.
19. High Evolutionary - Great rendering of the character with superior sculpt and articulation range.
20. Sylvie - I didn't want this figure at all and only bought it for the Watcher parts, but wow, she may have the best articulation of any female figure Hasbro has ever made. The cape is limiting, but if you take it off you can get her into insane Spider-Man like poses, and there are still multiple dynamic poses you can achieve while still using the cape if you get imaginative with placing it. The single-jointed elbows do limit the posing a bit, but they get well beyond 90 degrees making them good enough. Her boots make it easy to get her to stand in any pose unlike most female figures. Aesthetically she's only average overall, but the surprisingly-good articulation is what landed her this high among 2021's best.

Here's my list of subjective favorites. Several of these aren't at all innovative, but I just love them more for whatever reason.

1. Haslab Sentinel
2. Stilt-Man
3. AoA Colossus
4. AoA Sabretooth - Before I received this guy I thought for sure he'd be in my top ten objective list, but there's too much re-use of old sculpts that limit his articulation in ways that make the previous Apocalypse wave release have surprisingly better articulation. But I MUCH prefer the larger size and look of this guy, and even though the articulation is more limited than I was hoping for he's just an awesome-looking Sabretooh.
5. Modular Iron Man
6. Ultron
7. MCU Vulture - Not even in the running for best figure since it's a re-release, but I never had the original and didn't realize how fun those wings are. Great update to a great figure.
8. MODOK
9. AoA Iceman
10. Disney Plus Scarlet Witch

Here's some posing I did of most of the figures from these lists while deciding which were the best.

[fantastic_four]

Oh, and for you guys who are vaguely interested in Marvel Legends but haven't seen many or most of the figures I referred to in my best of 2021 lists--there's a great site named FigureList that serves as a fantastic visual reference for every Marvel Legends figure ever made.  Here's a link to their list of figures from 2021:

https://figurelist.co/marvel-legends-checklist/2021-waves/

[F For Fake]

I thought you guys might find these amusing. I am going through a big folder of old Christmas party pics that I'd scanned, putting together a slideshow thing for our xmas party this weekend. At any rate, I ran across these pics that are nearly 25 years old now, of my friends playing with my old USS Flagg. This is the same USS Flagg that I bought for about $20 at the comic shop I was working at in '96, back when you could get this stuff for pennies on the dollar. No one cared back then. When I moved out, I ended up selling the Flagg to the guy in the flannel who is holding the microphone, for $50. He cleaned it up and completed it, and still has it today. This is the friend with the huge GI Joe "museum" in his house.

Anyway, I just thought it was amusing because this was back when this stuff was cool, but was at an absolute low point from a collector's point of view. So it was just fun to play with! Look, there's Storm Shadow walking along the crane! It was fun then, but now it gives me anxiety, all I can think about is hundreds of dollars worth of broken crotches and thumbs! oh well.

If you zoom in, you can barely make out the Transformers stuff, pretty sure I had a complete set of the Gestalts back then. More stuff I got for almost nothing. It was a great time to buy. Wish I still had even half of it!

[ADAMANTIUM]

On 12/16/2021 at 9:51 AM, F For Fake said:

I thought you guys might find these amusing. I am going through a big folder of old Christmas party pics that I'd scanned, putting together a slideshow thing for our xmas party this weekend. At any rate, I ran across these pics that are nearly 25 years old now, of my friends playing with my old USS Flagg. This is the same USS Flagg that I bought for about $20 at the comic shop I was working at in '96, back when you could get this stuff for pennies on the dollar. No one cared back then. When I moved out, I ended up selling the Flagg to the guy in the flannel who is holding the microphone, for $50. He cleaned it up and completed it, and still has it today. This is the friend with the huge GI Joe "museum" in his house.

Anyway, I just thought it was amusing because this was back when this stuff was cool, but was at an absolute low point from a collector's point of view. So it was just fun to play with! Look, there's Storm Shadow walking along the crane! It was fun then, but now it gives me anxiety, all I can think about is hundreds of dollars worth of broken crotches and thumbs! oh well.

If you zoom in, you can barely make out the Transformers stuff, pretty sure I had a complete set of the Gestalts back then. More stuff I got for almost nothing. It was a great time to buy. Wish I still had even half of it!

Fun! The antenna on the Flagg makes the one guy look like the man in the iron mask, good times!

Glad the Flagg went to a friend!

 

[whisp]

I have been watching amazon for the V1 Classified Storm Shadow.  I missed out a couple times on preorders.

I also found this listing on Canada under the name Hasbro Gij Cs Figure Jupiter. 

Today got lucky and snagged one and then it was sold out.  

Of the classified series pretty much only one that I wanted and hoping for a v2 Storm Shadow.

 

 

 

[followtheleader]

On 12/16/2021 at 8:51 AM, F For Fake said:

I thought you guys might find these amusing. I am going through a big folder of old Christmas party pics that I'd scanned, putting together a slideshow thing for our xmas party this weekend. At any rate, I ran across these pics that are nearly 25 years old now, of my friends playing with my old USS Flagg. This is the same USS Flagg that I bought for about $20 at the comic shop I was working at in '96, back when you could get this stuff for pennies on the dollar. No one cared back then. When I moved out, I ended up selling the Flagg to the guy in the flannel who is holding the microphone, for $50. He cleaned it up and completed it, and still has it today. This is the friend with the huge GI Joe "museum" in his house.

Anyway, I just thought it was amusing because this was back when this stuff was cool, but was at an absolute low point from a collector's point of view. So it was just fun to play with! Look, there's Storm Shadow walking along the crane! It was fun then, but now it gives me anxiety, all I can think about is hundreds of dollars worth of broken crotches and thumbs! oh well.

If you zoom in, you can barely make out the Transformers stuff, pretty sure I had a complete set of the Gestalts back then. More stuff I got for almost nothing. It was a great time to buy. Wish I still had even half of it!

$20-50, that's friggin crazy!

You're right, things were so cheap in the late 90s.   

I was able to buy Joes and He-man for nothing.  Especially Joes around here.  

G1 Transformers, at least locally, were "expensive".   So I postponed a bit longer than I should have.

Very cool pics.  

Patrick

[Cat]

Today I bought the final 3 Gundam Infinity figures needed to complete the set and build the BAF Zaku. Those figures are the RX78-2, the Wing Gundam, and the awesome looking Gundam Barbatos. Enjoy this pic of the Barbatos, the Astray Red Frame, and the Zaku in the front, desperately scrambling for its gun. Things aren't looking good. 

[Brandon Shepherd]

eBay is like a hot tub time machine.

[F For Fake]

On 12/16/2021 at 10:52 PM, followtheleader said:

$20-50, that's friggin crazy!

You're right, things were so cheap in the late 90s.   

I was able to buy Joes and He-man for nothing.  Especially Joes around here.  

G1 Transformers, at least locally, were "expensive".   So I postponed a bit longer than I should have.

Very cool pics.  

Patrick

I know, it was a very different time! Yes, I paid about $20-$30 (can't recall which) for the Flagg at the local comic shop I worked at back then. (So that means they must have only paid $10-$15 bucks for it!) It was missing some of the small pieces, but it DID have Admiral Keel Haul, and the microphone and most of the deck clips. So even then it was a steal. It also came with the box, which was a real shambles, but the front panel image was in nice shape. My friend still has it too, and is thinking about cutting the box away and just leaving the front panel, so he can display it, as the rest of the box is a real mess, with duct tape residue, etc. Still, any box at all is something.

I worked at the comic shop from around 95 to 97, something like that, and while we sold toys, most of the business was in new, hot stuff, like McFarlane. Spawn toys flew off the shelves. Same with the Start Wars POTF2 line when it hit. We did some business in "vintage toys", but it was mostly limited to Megos, KISS dolls, and stuff like that. But during my brief tenure, we started to branch out into Transformers and GI Joe. Like your area, Transformers lead the way in price, but even at that they were still an absolute bargain compared to these days. And Joes, man, I really wish I'd had the money to invest in them back then. Everything was dirt cheap. Makes me wonder what is dirt cheap NOW that is worth picking up. Not much that I'd be personally interested in, unfortunately. 

[BabaLament]

Hello all!

The Deep & Homelander (Floating) Funko Pop's arrive today! Waiting on the red-eye Homelander & Hughie to complete the set...plus whatever comes out with Season 3! I'm guessing Soldier Boy, Crimson Countess, and maybe Stormfront.

Also got the Target Exclusive Madam Web; which is very neat; wasn't expecting this one, and its very accurate to the animated series. Not so excited for the other animated Spider-Man first series; Spider-Man looks ok, but Black Cat, Doctor Octopus, and Hobgoblin are all less than impressive.

*Update*

Ok! Shipping error in my favor. Madam Web's street day is 12/20/21; so it looks like the first wave of pre-orders are getting their deliveries a couple of days early! Spider-Man, Black Cat, Doctor Octopus, and Hobgoblin pre-orders are sold out (instantly), so it looks like they've gone from Target Exclusive to eBay Exclusive...just like every other Target exclusive release. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by BabaLament

[707comics]

Purchased these from a boardie and put them in my favorite display cases ... love the colors on these! I am trying to move all my MOC stuff into them for display purposes.

[followtheleader]

On 12/17/2021 at 11:36 AM, F For Fake said:

I know, it was a very different time! Yes, I paid about $20-$30 (can't recall which) for the Flagg at the local comic shop I worked at back then. (So that means they must have only paid $10-$15 bucks for it!) It was missing some of the small pieces, but it DID have Admiral Keel Haul, and the microphone and most of the deck clips. So even then it was a steal. It also came with the box, which was a real shambles, but the front panel image was in nice shape. My friend still has it too, and is thinking about cutting the box away and just leaving the front panel, so he can display it, as the rest of the box is a real mess, with duct tape residue, etc. Still, any box at all is something.

I worked at the comic shop from around 95 to 97, something like that, and while we sold toys, most of the business was in new, hot stuff, like McFarlane. Spawn toys flew off the shelves. Same with the Start Wars POTF2 line when it hit. We did some business in "vintage toys", but it was mostly limited to Megos, KISS dolls, and stuff like that. But during my brief tenure, we started to branch out into Transformers and GI Joe. Like your area, Transformers lead the way in price, but even at that they were still an absolute bargain compared to these days. And Joes, man, I really wish I'd had the money to invest in them back then. Everything was dirt cheap. Makes me wonder what is dirt cheap NOW that is worth picking up. Not much that I'd be personally interested in, unfortunately. 

And look at the piece prices today.  Microphones, even not working, are $125-150.  A crane cover sold for $75 the other day.  

Personally, I always thought the deck clips were undervalued.  Often made me wonder if most on the net were repros. 

A box with tape/glue is still very desirable.  Not many boxes kicking around and few come to market for a decent price.

I had the opportunity to buy a 2nd one about 4-5 years ago.  In a very nice box, complete, and with the inserts.  Was $1200.   Should have picked it up, stup.  If the box is tough to locate, the inserts are about 100x harder.

Do you have pics of your buddies Joe collection that he'd be okay with posting?  I can't get enough of people's collections. 

Thought of you with the tornado, hope everything is good.  Pretty sure you're north of where it hit, but not 100%.   I'm wishing the best for those affected, terrible it happened and even worse at this time of year.  

Patrick

[Cat]

Here's a first look at next year's Marvel Legends X-Men wave. Gotta say, it's an awful BAF choice, but it's a nice sculpt, just a terrible character choice that I don't think will entice anybody. http://marveltoynews.com/marvel-legends-20th-anniversary-hulk-figure-x-men-legends-2022-series-revealed/

Edited December 20, 2021 by Mecha_Fantastic

[Buzzetta]

Heh... why not... Top 3 Pieces of Plastic Crack that I picked up this year.  

I have really really really cut down and sold off a lot of things.  However, there were a few releases that came out this year that I could not ignore.  I picked up the 2021 Modular Lego Police Station but that was like just checking off a box.

1 - The Number one thing I picked up was the large scale Lego Millennium Falcon.  For a few years I was on the fence but after selling off well over 150 gallons of lego, I figured I could justify the future footprint.  With the introduction of the giant Lego AT-AT the Falcon's days are numbered.  With a large amount of Lego points that significantly lowered the cost of this set I figured it was time.   It is currently still boxed until I redo the basement and buy a coffee table to house it. 

2 - Transformers Earthrise - Rodimus Prime - with honorable mentions going to the entire Studio Series line this year.  This was a very impressive figure and I really feel as if the engineering of the Transformers line is trickling down to the main line.  Mine is still sealed as I am not opening it until Christmas morning.  After I saw the video reviews I checked someone else's out and once I held it in hand I knew I had to go find one to pick it up.  Target offered a 25% off coupon that day... no brainer. 

3 - GI Joe Classified - Snake Eyes and Timber - I blame all of you for this.  This is the ONLY six inch figure I own.  So if you are going to get ONE then get the best one.  Snake Eyes and Timber were my favorites as a kid.  The only thing I wish it had was an alternate head sculpt so I could have a "knight visor" version.  This is still quite the detailed piece. 

Honorable Mention:

The Lego Daily Bugle... This is the year of Spider-man after all. 

So... what were your top 3?

[Cat]

1. Mezco 1:12 Collective Dr Fate. Such a beautiful figure, and so well-accessorised. This is a must-own for fans of the character, and fans of good product. 

2. This spot is tentatively going to a figure that I'm still waiting on: Masterpiece Thundercracker (new version). Finally a cartoon-accurate Seeker sculpt, and damn it looks good. It'll be a while before mine arrives, due to my shipping snafu with BBTS, so I'm living vicariously through others', but it looks SO nice. 

3. Transformers Studio '86 Hot Rod. This figure has it all. Excellent articulation, beautiful sculpt, nice accessories. It's a VERY sweet figure, and a great example of just how good modern Transformers can be. 

[fantastic_four]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:35 PM, Buzzetta said:

3 - GI Joe Classified - Snake Eyes and Timber - I blame all of you for this.  This is the ONLY six inch figure I own.  So if you are going to get ONE then get the best one.  Snake Eyes and Timber were my favorites as a kid.  The only thing I wish it had was an alternate head sculpt so I could have a "knight visor" version.  This is still quite the detailed piece. 

I've got two of this set so I can have two dogs with both heads.  SUCH a great set, definitely my favorite from the Classified Series aside from the original deluxe Snake Eyes set that comes with the weapon rack.